We may be able to see mountains and valleys on distant worlds

Is there another Grand Canyon somewhere out there?

NASA/JPL-Caltech

By John Wenz

There are stunning mountain ranges on Earth, Mars and even Pluto. But what about worlds further afield?

Moiya McTier at Columbia University in New York presented her research into the embryonic field of exotopography on 11 January at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. She says that by analysing the dip in a star’s light as a planet passes in front of it, we might be able to discern actual details about the planet’s landscape.

None of the rocky planets in our solar system are …

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